I’ve been reading some opinions on Caracas. Since I was born there, I hope you can find my opinion a little bit helpful. You have to analyse Caracas by traveling and experiencing the city. You'll find a very hidden beauty.
When you arrive to Simon Bolivar Airport and take the highway to ... Read review
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Advantages: Avila Mountain, Gastronomy, Latin Flavor Disadvantages: Crime, Unsafe.
...helpful. You have to analyse Caracas by traveling and experiencing the city. You'll find a very hidden beauty.
When you arrive to Simon Bolivar Airport and take the highway to Caracas, you’ll see an enormous belt of shanty towns (poor districts). At first, it seems to be shocking and depressing. Once in the city, you discover that Caracas is located in a wonderful place: the skirts of Avila Mountain, a beautiful national park that ... ...that El Hatillo is inside Caracas Area but preserves his colonial architecture.
If you find a friend in Caracas with a car, please, ask him/her to drive to peripheral routes (Lagunita-Alto Hatillo-Los Naranjos) You’ll see beautiful views of the city lights from the top of the hills.
Don’t forget to go to dinner in a restaurant of Centro Comercial El Mirador (San Roman) or Los Naranjos Plaza. It will be quite remarkable ... more
I’ve been reading some opinions on Caracas. Since I was born there, I hope you can find my opinion a little bit helpful. You have to analyse Caracas by traveling and experiencing the city. You'll find a very hidden beauty.
When you arrive to Simon Bolivar Airport and take the highway to Caracas, you’ll see an enormous belt of shanty towns (poor districts). At first, it seems to be shocking and depressing. Once in the city, you discover that Caracas is located in a wonderful place: the skirts of Avila Mountain, a beautiful national park that separates Caracas from Caribbean Sea. A sunny day, at dusk , you’ll find delightful the green and blue shades of the mountain.
It is essential for you to take the cableway that leads to the top of the mountain (Humboldt Station 9000 ft. above sea level) . Now, watch the landscape: on one hand, a panoramic view of the city, on the other hand, the Caribbean Sea. You might want climbing the mountain to discover the Old Rock-Road of the Spaniards and the abandoned forts built in the 17th century. Fascinating. You should visit Parque Del Este (a national park in the East Zone) to appreciate a very beautiful landscape of Avila Mountain from the city.
Density of population is high. The city is built on little hills (rich and poor together in some places) making difficult to reach an address because of lack of an adequate signal system. You’ll be impressed on how this could become a city of 5 million people in that kind of narrow valley.
Be prepared for cultural diversity: European immigration of 50’s (Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) along with Chinese and Lebanese immigrants gives a great cosmopolitan touch to this large city. There is a wide offer of upscale restaurants and dishes from the typical arepa (a Venezuelan corn-grilled cake) to excellent Japanese, Spanish, Lebanese or Italian gastronomy. It is very useful to walk around La Castellana, Los Palos Grandes (La Cuadra Gastronomica) or Las Mercedes to enjoy with their restaurants. Besides, Las Mercedes offer a lot of entertainment and night life.
West Zone of the city is very UNSAFE and you are warned to not walking alone or without a Venezuelan friend around this zone, because of Chavez (our president) and his fans called “Circulos Bolivarianos”. They use to be dangerous people and streets use to be very dirty and occupied by horrible street vendors. Most of them are not Venezuelans!!. Despite of this, you should take a tour with specialized tourist guiders in order to visit some very important sightseeings of West Zone. They have a remarkable historical value and it is worth to seeing them (Bolivar Square, National Assembly, Cathedral, San Francisco Church, Santa Capilla, Bolivar House, all of them plenty of artworks inside). Be Careful.
In contrast, East Zone of the city is safer and enjoyable. People are extremely warm. Although you could notice that they are afraid of strangers, because of criminality, if you talk with them, you’ll see its kindness. Traffic usually is terrible. We count on modern highways, but the number of vehicles overpass normal capacity of the streets.
Avoid use of jewels and rings. Hide your money and camera in a safe place. AVOID METRO SYSTEM. It is unsafe because of crime. TAXIS are good solution to go somewhere.
The Museums Zone (Gallery of National Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Sofía Imber MACCSI, Teresa Carreño Theather) in Downtown, is worth seeing. MACCSI has a collection of Picasso, Miró, Botero and very valuable impresionist artworks !!
You should visit El Hatillo, in the outskirts of Caracas. It is a colonial and charming town, in which you can find a wide variety of handicrafts and taste an exquisite dinner (eat a pizza !!). In fact, you might say that El Hatillo is inside Caracas Area but preserves his colonial architecture.
If you find a friend in Caracas with a car, please, ask him/her to drive to peripheral routes (Lagunita-Alto Hatillo-Los Naranjos) You’ll see beautiful views of the city lights from the top of the hills.
Don’t forget to go to dinner in a restaurant of Centro Comercial El Mirador (San Roman) or Los Naranjos Plaza. It will be quite remarkable to dinner Italian cuisine or sea food with candlelights, a cup of wine and great views of the city by night...a little bit expensive but pretty romantic.
Avoid taking a room in cheap hotels. Take a room in 4 or 5 stars hotels in East Zone of the city and you’ll be satisfied.
Weather is incredible. Caracas is also known as “eternal spring city” always between 68-85 F.
Hope you enjoy Caracas! Bye!
PS. Remember that crimes are everywhere and this is third world. What is interesting is knowing a new culture in an enjoyable enviroment...
Advantages: Good night life Disadvantages: Dangerous
...Caraqueños like to think that Caracas IS Venezuela and to a certain extent, if one is seeking the trappings of modern days living, they may be right. However, if you are seeking to touch base with Latin American culture, you should avoid the capital completely. The city has grown hugely in what would have been a delightful position, high in a valley and enjoys a good all year round climate, but it's heavily congested, highly polluted and in recent ...
Impavidus 30.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Caracas
Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly
Quick review of Caracas
There are major roadworks between the International Airport and Caracas so it is important to leave plenty of time. the longest time was 3 hours 30 mins from the centre of the city to the airport by car. the shortest time was 1hr 20 mins ...
dayredeemer 02.05.2007
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Caracas
Advantages: Cheap, comfortable and friendly Disadvantages: Advertising as direct flights when that is not the case
Avianca is a Colombian airline that offers flights around Latin America, the U.S and a few destinations in Spain. I flew with them on two return flights, once within Colombia and once from Quito to Caracas. Avianca has the broadest connections for the northern half of South America of any airline.
Flights in South America are rarely cheap and as far as I am aware there is no budget airline that would match the likes of ryanair or easyjet within Europe, however, Avianca does offer reasonable value for money. Their flights are frequently the cheapest that I could find for travel around the Andean and Caribbean region.
The airline is not very useful to get from Europe over to the Americas as it's only connections are to Madrid and Barcelona. Prices are on par with any other trans-atlantic flight.
The flights themselves were ...
flyingllamas 20.06.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Avianca
Advantages: cheap, beautiful, diverse Disadvantages: can be dangerous, english is not widely spoken
Venezuela has to be the most amazingly diverse country i have ever been to, and worry not, it is not the only place i have been. It ranges from the Andes in the West to the Gran Sabana and then onto the dense Jungle in the east. It has the world's tallest waterfall: Angel Falls, (discovered by Jimmy Angel), beautiful Carribean Coast, unique tribal communities and bustling oil rich cities.
As i did with my trip lets start where most people do -Caracas. This is a city of to halves, extreme poverty and extreme wealth due to the oil, but the first thing that hit me was the incredible prices. I mean a 3 course meal for £2.50 and people were ripping you off if they were selling fags for 90p. This meant that a daily budget was tiny and in fact hotel rooms in other towns were less than £4.00 a night, so a budget of less than £15 is fine ...
Advantages: Great natural beauty Disadvantages: Pollution from cars
a very small way, as the credit card advert goes ?Priceless?.
Orientation and Important Stuff
For those who do not know Venezuela is in South America on the northern coast of the continent looking out towards Trinidad and the rest of the Caribbean, in the west you have the Andes before you land up in Columbia and the south west is dominated by the jungles that lead into the Amazon. The capital city is Caracas which is located in the north, apart from the airport I spent no time in the city and only saw it from the windows of a bus. It has a bad reputation for crime however like all such places if you are sensible and stay in the tourist areas and do not venture out alone at night then you will be fine, the whole month in Venezuela the only negative comment I heard about Caracas was from a German bloke who got pick-pocketed on public ...
